Orange County Public Schools Hold One Standard For Christians, Another Standard For Non-Christians

June 15th, 2013 | Posted by Peregrin Wood in Religion | State and Local - (9 Comments)

We live in a nation with increasing religious diversity. In every single in the USA, the portion of the population that follows Christianity is in decline, while the nonreligious portion of the population is increasing. In most places, non-Christian religion is taking up a bigger share of the population as well.

Still, in some places, Christians in positions of authority still try to act as if it’s their natural right to use the power of government to elevate their beliefs above everybody else’s. Orange County, Florida, the home of the city of Orlando, is one of those places.

The Orange County Public Schools has established a double standard for the distribution of books about religion in its high schools. Christianity is given a first class position in the high schools in Orlando. Christians are allowed to distribute their Bible to public school students there. Non-Christians, however, have been banned by the Orange County Public Schools from distributing their own books about religion.

One group, the Central Florida Freethought Community, tried. The organization attempted to gain permission to distribute its own books: Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, The Truth, by Robert Ingersoll, Why I am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq, Jesus is Dead, by Robert Price, and others. The Orange County Public Schools refused to grant permission. The Orange County Public Schools said that these books would cause “disruption”, ignoring the fact that disagreements about the Christian Bible have engulfed nearly the entire continent of Europe in war.

The Orange County Public Schools wrote to the Central Florida Freethought Community that the “claim that Jesus was not crucified or resurrected is age inappropriate”. How the assertion that a person was not executed in a long, gruesome manner is inappropriate for teenagers, the school district didn’t explain. However, the Central Florida Freethought Community has noted that, in approving the Christian Bible, the Orange County Public Schools has agreed that a book that writes extensively about crucifixion is age-appropriate. What’s the psychological theory behind that conclusion?

The legal complaint by CFFC explains that the group doesn’t ultimately want to place books in public schools that promote freethought ideas about religion. “Our public schools exist to educate, not to serve as conduits for advertisers, proselytizers, and special interest groups seeking to propagandize a captive audience of young students. Plaintiffs prefer that no dissemination of outside materials, such as Bibles or their own literature, occur in Orange County Public Schools. But since Defendants are allowing distributions, all viewpoints must now be granted fair and equal access,” it states.

Until the Orange County Public Schools either allows all points of view about religion to have equal access to high school students or institutes a ban for the distribution of materials about religion in high schools by outside groups, students in the Orlando area will be receiving a remarkable lesson in hypocrisy.

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A Day for Everyone in Maine Goes Nowhere

June 1st, 2013 | Posted by Jim Cook in Democrats | Legislation | Politics | State and Local - (1 Comments)

Most legislators who propose that a particular day be named for some concept tend to home in on some particular concept, cause or constituency. But this year in Maine, State Representative Scott Hamann has introduced a bill that at least in principle appeals to everyone. If passed, HP 1067 would institute the first Wednesday in April as Everyone Matters Day. The preamble to HP 1067 recognizes that people are judged and discriminated against on the basis of all kinds of status, as children and as adults, in all sorts of settings, online and offline. Therefore, the idea is that on the first Wednesday in April, people will remember that “Everyone Matters” and that we will “promote respect and support everyone’s right to be who he or she is without being shamed, judged or attacked.”

This potentially most universal of bills hasn’t even received a committee hearing, avoiding a nasty collision of earnestness and sarcasm in 2015, when the first Wednesday in April falls on April Fools’ Day.

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Prophet Hale, where are the Riots in Columbus, Ohio?

May 15th, 2013 | Posted by Jim Cook in Mysteries | Religion | State and Local - (2 Comments)

At the end of December 2011, Christian pastor and self-proclaimed prophet T.D. Hale predicted massive riots on the streets of Columbus, Ohio:

Prophet TD Hale Bombs Out on Prediction of Riots in Columbus OhioAs I moved along the way I saw people running, looking for loved ones missing, totally out of their minds.

I quickly came over a large city, looked like it was Columbus, Ohio? As I came close, there it was, the riots we have all heard about. Store windows busted, grabbing what they could get but I could tell they were not too concerned about T.V.’s I pads, etc. they were grabbing food, water, chips, things to survive on. Riots, fighting, I even saw one man shot to death.

Where are the “riots we have all heard about” on the streets of Columbus, Ohio? I seem to have missed them.

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Delaware And Bicycles

May 8th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Sex and Gender | State and Local - (1 Comments)

“Delaware should be, is and will be a welcoming place to live and love and to raise a family for all who call our great state home.” So said Governor Jack Markell last night, upon signing into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.

Still, there are those, like the Boy Scouts and their allies, who remain loyal to out-of-date anti-homosexual bigotry. Even some supposedly gay-friendly families get involved with the Boy Scouts, because they just can’t imagine childhood without dorky-looking uniforms covered with badges.

“I know they’re knuckle-walking jerks,” they say with a shrug, “but the Boy Scouts help fathers bond with their sons.” Is there no other way for fathers and sons to get together and share an experience? Dave and Joseph McGrath found an alternative. They’re riding their bicycles together, over 1,800 miles, to the Boy Scouts headquarters in protest against the continuing anti-gay discrimination of the Boy Scouts of America.

Speaking of bicycles, it’s National Bicycle Month, a time for people to leave their automobiles behind, stop burning gasoline for a while, and roll down the road on their own power. You may not be able to go as far as the McGraths, but you still have the power to get out and move without paying Exxon or BP for the privilege.

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Uncle Tong’s Cabin

May 7th, 2013 | Posted by Peregrin Wood in Reviews | State and Local - (2 Comments)

I’m visiting Houston, and staying in a hotel room without a kitchen, so last night I went out to pick up some dinner from a restaurant within walking distance: Uncle Tong’s Hunan Cuisine.

The owner of the restaurant met me at the door, and she seemed nice enough at first, as she took my order. As I was leaving, however, she volunteered an opinion about the neighborhood in which she had put her business. “Don’t go over there after dark,” she said, pointing to the Greenspoint Mall. “It’s very dangerous. There are too many blacks and Mexicans.” She repeated the warning, over and over again. It was such a strange thing for her to say, without any provocation, that I was caught off balance. I didn’t know what to say. At that moment, I wanted to escape the situation, so I just left.

Afterwards, I regretted my hasty withdrawal. I wished I had thought of something to say, like, “It’s not right for you to say that entire groups of people are dangerous, because of nothing other than their ethnicity. It’s racist, and I won’t be coming back to your restaurant.”

I missed the opportunity… so I’m making a new one right now. I’m writing this article to call out the Uncle Tong’s restaurant, and warn other people who live, work, or visit near the Greenspoint Plaza towers where the restaurant is located.

Uncle Tong’s Hunan Cuisine is operated by racists who use their business to encourage others to embrace racism. Racism makes their food taste like garbage. Don’t eat there.

uncle tongs

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The Sunny, Warm Judgment of Yahweh Descends Upon Rhode Island

May 6th, 2013 | Posted by Jim Cook in Politics | Religion | Sex and Gender | State and Local - (1 Comments)

Number of prominent Christian pastors who say that weather is the instrument through which God delivers His Divine Judgment regarding homosexuality: at least 6

smiling sunNumber of days since Rhode Island legalized same-sex marriage: 4

Number of warm, sunny days since Rhode Island legalized same sex marriage: 4

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Documentation Note: Peter Ackerman, Rockport Capital, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Americans Elect

May 5th, 2013 | Posted by Jim Cook in Americans Elect | Politics | State and Local - (6 Comments)

This brief post serves as a coda to the privatized election saga of Americans Elect 2012 and a prelude to whatever stage of activity Americans Elect might plan next.

Three points of information:

  • A search of Florida’s corporation records reveals that, rather than dissolving itself, Americans Elect is still active, filing an annual report on May 1 2013 that lists Peter Ackerman, Kahlil Byrd and Joshua Levine as primary corporate officers.
  • The next indication of Americans Elect’s continued or discontinued activity will come at the end of the month, when Americans Elect is due to post its annual report in the state of Maine. Americans Elect was active in Maine in 2012, funneling significant amounts of money from out-of-state financial sector titans into the campaign for Senator Angus King.
  • Placing these reports in context, this April 17 document places Peter Ackerman not at the margin of economics and politics but near its center. Throughout his involvement with presidential election privatization efforts at Americans Elect, Peter Ackerman has remained with Rockport Capital, the wealth investment and management firm he founded. Ackerman not only remains a member of the Council on Foreign Relations but is a board member.

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Boston Rallies to Redirect Budget Cuts from Human Needs to the Military Budget

April 16th, 2013 | Posted by Jim Cook in Activism | Economy | Politics | State and Local | War and Peace - (1 Comments)

At 11 AM today, a large coalition of groups assembles outside Boston’s North Station in a rally for the reprioritization of the budget from warfare to human needs. Participating groups include:

  • Budget for All Coalition
  • Mass. AFL-CIO
  • Mass. Jobs with Justice
  • Mass. Alliance of HUD Tenants
  • American Friends Service Committee
  • Mass. Peace Action
  • Disability Policy Consortium
  • Sierra Club – Boston; Boston Workers Alliance
  • ACTUP/Boston
  • Veterans for Peace
  • Homes for Families
  • Dorchester People for Peace
  • United for Justice with Peace
  • Boston Coalition to Fund Our Communities-Cut Military Spending 25%
  • Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
  • Human Rights City Boston & Beyond
  • Survivors Inc.
  • SEIU Local 509 Lavender Caucus
  • Brookline PAX
  • FGE Locals 3258 and 1164/AFL-CIO

The call of these organizations is clear:

1. Prevent cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans benefits, or to housing, food and unemployment assistance;

2. Create and protect jobs by investing in manufacturing, schools, housing, renewable energy, transportation and other public services;

3. Provide new revenues for these purposes and to reduce the long-term federal deficit by closing corporate tax loopholes, ending offshore tax havens, and raising taxes on incomes over $250,000; and

4. Redirect military spending to these domestic needs by reducing the military budget, ending the war in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home safely now.

Tomorrow, we’ll look and see whether this positive agitation for a more humane world has been covered by local media, or whether more negative activities are rewarded with attention. But if you’re one of the people living in the Boston metro area today, you can sidestep the media and make your own choice. While the media focuses on doom and gloom, there are a number of people out there actively organizing for their vision of a better world, right now, today. Will you join them?

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